Editor’s Miscellany: Bookish Pleasures
December 20, 2012
By Kyle Hoepner
There’s just something about books and bookshelves–preferably lots and lots of them–that will give a room an amazing sense of comfort and warmth. Whether your own collection, painstakingly (or offhandedly) assembled since second grade, or the product of a quick foray by your designer to one of the numerous online sources touting “books by the yard,†those packed ranks of variously colored spines convey a sense of civilized calm that’s scarcely achievable in any other way. And if the odd extra stack or two ends up on a table or the floor? You get extra points, in my view.
![NEH-CT-WIN13-Hallgarten-Library](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NEH-CT-WIN13-Hallgarten-Library.jpg)
![NEH-CT-WIN11-Gallipoli-Library](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NEH-CT-WIN13-Hallgarten-Library.jpg)
![Atelier-Branca-Library](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Atelier-Branca-Library.jpg)
Feel free to intersperse a selection of choice objects–carved boxes, small sculptures, mismatched bookends, finials, family photos, drawings, perhaps a dried and varnished puffer fish–to get that cabinet de curiosités effect. Or hang a few pictures in front of the shelves (although this is a pretty good indicator that your books aren’t frequently used).
![NEH-CT-SUM12-Winer-Library](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NEH-CT-SUM12-Winer-Library.jpg)
![NEH-MA12-Ross-Library](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/NEH-MA12-Ross-Library.jpg)
Older glass-front library cases can be a lot of fun, and I’ve particularly enjoyed how inventively designers in recent years have been using color or pattern on the shelves, bookcase back or the wall behind to pull a room’s color palette together.
![Gary-C-Sharpe-Globe-Wernicke-Bookcase](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Gary-C-Sharpe-Globe-Wernicke-Bookcase.jpg)
![Haynes-Roberts-Elle-Decor-Library](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Haynes-Roberts-Elle-Decor-Library.jpg)
![Christina-Murphy-Herringbone-Shelves](https://www.nehomemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Christina-Murphy-Herringbone-Shelves.jpg)
Can this kind of biblio-love be taken too far? Yes, I suppose. But then again, my own little urban nest has entirely run out of wall space for shelves, which now are being set back-to-back à la library stacks–and I’m not a bit sorry.
Another book-related space you may enjoy:
Little Big House: One compact building in New Hampshire’s White Mountains functions as guesthouse, library, tennis-viewing pavilion and boathouse.
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